Reluctant Diva Country chanteuse Kelly Hogan resumes her music career but longs to work in a hardware store. by JOHN FLOYD There's something gracefully modest about the 10-year career of Kelly Hogan, a reluctant diva from Atlanta whose mastery of songcraft is rivaled only by her endearing self-effacement and her artistic range as a writer and interpreter. Her work in the early '90s with the Jody Grind balanced rootsy traditionalism with alt-rock irreverence, and she brought subtle charm and charismatic melody to the bash-and-pop clatter of the Rock*A*Teens. As a solo artist, though, Hogan has displayed a bold, remarkable mastery of just about everything in the lexicon of popular music -- from smoky honky-tonk balladry to eclectic post-punk pop; from commanding soul stomps to Western swing weepers. On 1996's The Whistle Only Dogs Can Hear and the upcoming Beneath the Country Underdog, Hogan weaves her own evocative songs into well-chosen covers that span the gamut of Willie Nelson, the Palace Brothers, and Toussaint McCall. "It's like having people over and playing them records," says Hogan of the two long-players that bare her unique, indelible stamp. "They're just songs that I like lyrically, or things that remind me of someone or mean something to me." Fortunately, her taste is impeccable: Beneath the Country Underdog, recorded with Jon Langford's Pine Valley Cosmonauts, weds seemingly disparate songs such as Willie Nelson's aching "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" with Magnetic Fields' "Papa Was a Rodeo," and Freddie Hart's forgotten 1971 hit "Easy Loving." The result is a song cycle of sorts that chronicles the highs and lows of love and romance -- the torment and pain of loss and the warm, intoxicating rush of bliss. It's also a stunning amalgamation of Hogan's influences, which ranges from Charlie Rich and Johnny Paycheck to Loretta Lynn and the Band. "I've been singing since I was a little kid," she says. "My brother would always punch me to make me quit singing along with the radio. He would sit on my chest and cover my mouth, but I would still be harmonizing to the Tom Jones records my mom always played. No one in the family sings or plays, but there were always lots and lots of records. My dad likes Otis Redding and Jackie Wilson, and my mom used to play Van Morrison records while she was vacuuming the house. She liked country music, too, and I used to go to my grandparents' house and watch Hee Haw. My first crush was on Buck Owens. I look at him now and wonder just what I was thinking. Those lizard lips." Hogan formed the Jody Grind in the late '80s, and cut two albums with the band before an auto accident claimed the lives of guitarist Walter Hayes and drummer Robert Clayton. She later hooked up with the Rock*A*Teens, and moonlighted with Jody Grind guitarist Bill Taft, recording her songs in a basement studio in Atlanta and issuing them on a pair of cassettes under the name Kick Me. Her debut solo album The Whistle Only Dogs Can Hear, cut with a trio including guitarist Andy Hopkins, contained some of those songs, in addition to fine covers of Toussaint McCall's New Orleans classic "Nothing Takes the Place of You" and the Palace Brothers' "King Me." The album garnered a bit of critical praise, and Hogan's band toured in the mid-'90s, making a few important stops along the way in Chicago. "We started touring in '96, but I already had ants in my pants to move," Hogan says. "I liked Chicago a lot, but I had so much crap it took me a whole year to pack it all up." She hit the Windy City in April 1997, deeply in debt and in dire need of a break from touring and recording. A real job beckoned: "I was just tired and beat and wanted to see if I could shut up," Hogan recalls. She wound up working as a publicist at Bloodshot Records, the self-proclaimed home of insurgent country and the label of choice for the Waco Brothers, Alejandro Escovedo, and other alt-country artists. "The whole not-singing thing lasted about three months," Hogan says of her brief stint at the label. "I learned a lot being on the other side of the desk, but I was eating my heart out. I would be typing out an itinerary for a band's tour and think that I'd rather be doing it than typing it." Following an on-stage cameo at a Chicago show with honky-tonker Dale Watson and a drunken afternoon with Jon Langford, Hogan was asked to do an album with the Cosmonauts. Slated for release in early April, Beneath the Country Underdog was preceded by a split-single tribute to Loretta Lynn shared with Bloodshot label mate Neko Case and an appearance on the Cosmonauts' aural fete to Bob Wills, on which the powerhouse chanteuse turns in a definitive version of "Drunkard's Blues." It's a stunning body of work, an oeuvre that nods to the icons of the past without pandering to retro-chic bohos or revivalist pinheads. Hogan, of course, downplays her impressive career and seems genuinely surprised that she's even singing again. "When I moved to Chicago, I just didn't want to be in bands anymore," she says. "I didn't even want to work in a music-related thing. I wanted to come here and work at a hardware store or something. There's a hardware store in Chicago called the Crafty Beaver, and I'm dying to work there. That's what I want to do." You can e-mail John Floyd at letters@memphisflyer.com. Music Notes by Mark Jordan Memphis Music Education While the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the project recently announced by the non-profit Ewarton Museum Inc. to honor the legacy of the late, great Memphis record label, is still years from coming to fruition, its organizers are already moving ahead with its mission of music education. Ewarton and LeMoyne-Owen College have teamed to sponsor a weekly series of lectures on the impact of the city on 20th-century music. The series kicked off last Tuesday with an overview of Memphis music history presented by University of Memphis musicologist Dr. David Evans, LeMoyne-Owen music professor Dr. Mildred Green, and Sherman Willmott, founder of Shangri-La Records and vice-president and curator of Ewarton. Future lectures will be held every Tuesday starting at 6 p.m. and are free to the public. Upcoming topics and speakers include: "Big Band Jazz; Jazz and R&B Precursors" presented by jazz musicians Herman Green and Calvin Newborn; "Memphis' Gospel Roots" by LeMoyne-Owen artist-in-residence Glenn Burleigh, a noted composer and pianist; "Sweet Southern Soul" by Rob Bowman, author of Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records; "Redneck Existentialism: The Memphis Rockabilly Movement" by Jim Cole, a Memphis music archivist, historian, and photographer who has worked for the Center for Southern Folklore, Sun Studios, and the Mississippi Valley Collection; "Memphis Pop Rocks" by Grammy-nominated author and filmmaker Robert Gordon; and "Rap Music Business in the 21st Century" by James Alexander, bass player for the Bar-Kays and a leading Memphis record executive. Located near the old Stax Studio on West McLemore, Lemoyne-Owen College is also part of Ewarton's $18 million project, which will house the college's music department, a 500-seat auditorium, and a Stax museum. Organizers have raised $7.5 million of the projected costs to date. Construction is expected to begin next year. For more information call 942-7350 or 578-1955. --Mark Jordan New Stuff in the Bins Of all rap's impostors, J Smoove may not be worthy of the title Cliché King. But he is certainly one of the jesters in that ever-changing ruler's court. The 20-year-old performer's debut album, Call Me Up, sticks with the tried and tired urban virtues of pimpin', smoking blunts, and gettin' hoes. Using a beat machine to lay tracks makes for simplistic cadences reminiscent of early legends. But guess what? The greats from the '80s had no choice but to use simple beats; the technology to create layered rhythms wasn't around. In 2000, there's no reason to cut a song that someone should be break-dancing to in white-washed jeans. J Smoove's album makes a listener so parched for danceable music that they're begging for a ripped-off Puffy tune. In his favor, J Smoove can rap. His lyrics, although trite, are spoken with clarity and decent inflection. A press release notes that the rap of the Dirty South -- a.k.a. Juvenile, Lil' Wayne, and DJ Quick -- inspired him. Those acts sell on gimmick. Lil' Wayne's The Bloc Is Hot wins because the kid isn't old enough to drive yet. Cash Money's Juvenile plays up his New Orleans swampland drawl. If J Smoove wants an edge, then he's got to drop raps with words like buggin' and spliffs. There's a reason why nobody's heard a word from Cypress Hill in a long time -- and they actually had talent. Also, new national releases in stores this week include: The Blacks Just Like Home (Bloodshot) The Dirty Three Whatever You Love, You Are (Touch and Go) Guided by Voices Hold on Hope (TVT) Jungle Brothers V.I.P. (V2) Al Jarreau Tomorrow Today (GRP) The Mekons Journey to the End of the Night (Touch and Go) --Ashley Fantz